


Sample

by purglepurglepurgle



Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Angst, Tension, Threats, a rather sexist Tseng, avoid if you'd rather not read things involving or referring to coercion, generally creepy, reference to Aeris/Zack, the coercive dynamic between Shinra and Aeris
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 09:07:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20992289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purglepurglepurgle/pseuds/purglepurglepurgle
Summary: Tseng is on Ancient-duty, and has a special task from Shinra. Aeris is uncooperative. Things are generally fraught. Darker than my usual fare. Set pre-OG. (And ignores compilation)





	Sample

"Aeris is upstairs," says Elmyra, reluctantly taking a step back inside the house so Tseng can enter. She knows better than to try to prevent him, but she never misses the opportunity to remind him he's unwelcome.

_Like I'm going to forget._

Tseng bows his head, a little too low. He follows Elmyra up the stairs. She would never allow him to go up there alone. She never lets him out of her sight.

_She'd make a good Turk_

He imagines offering her a job, and bites back a laugh. Outside Aeris' door, Elmyra pauses. "Don't overstay," she says. "Aeris has had a difficult week, and she's a little under the weather."

Tseng glances up at that. "Is she sick?"

"No. It doesn't matter-- just don't take any longer than you need to."

Tseng hears: it's none of his business. He raps on Aeris' door. "Aeris? Are you in there?"

There's a loud thump from the other side of the door. He recognises that thump. It's the exact sound that Aeris' bin makes when she throws it.

"Aeris," he says, "I'm coming in."

"Go away!"

Tseng ignores her and opens the door. She's sitting on the bed, knees drawn up, head pressed into them, arms gripping her shins. Her hair's loose, tangled; he's struck by how much hair she has. She's in a thin sundress. Her shoulders are bare. She's hiding her face, but the patch of cheek he can see looks red.

"Aeris--"

"Leave me alone," she mutters into her knees.

"I have to check," he reminds her. "I can't assume Elmyra is telling me the truth when she says you're still here."

"Oh, why would I lie?" says Elmyra, crossly. "You Shinra, you think everyone's as devious as you are."

"Fine, you've checked," says Aeris. "Get out of my room."

"Not yet," says Tseng. He feels Elmyra bristle behind him. He continues, "Shinra wants a blood sample."

Elmyra sucks her teeth. "Does she really need that--"

"It's not about what she needs, it's about what Shinra wants." Tseng takes a step into the room, and treads on something-- her sunhat. He bought it for her, last summer. It shouldn't be on the floor. He puts it on the shelf, then walks up to the edge of Aeris' bed. "Aeris, hold out your arm. It doesn't matter which. It won't take long."

Aeris lifts her head and glares up at him. Her eyes are wet, bloodshot. "No. Get out of my room."

"Aeris." Tseng pulls out the syringe. "Don't try my patience. It's better for both of us if you cooperate."

"Get out," says Aeris. He notices her dress is fastened over her bust with a ribbon. One loop is much bigger than the other, and the whole thing is crumpled.

"Aeris, this is your last warning."

"Can't it wait?" says Elmyra. "Look at her!"

Tseng reaches to grab Aeris' arm, but Aeris scrambles away from him, shoving the duvet in his way.

"Both of you, leave me alone!" The ribbon trembles. It's distracting. He wonders if it would come undone if he gave it a tug. Aeris sees him looking, makes her stupid assumptions, and draws her arms over her chest. "I'm not giving the Shinra anything, so go on, get out!"

"Aeris," says Tseng. "I need a blood sample from you. Shinra don't care how I get it_. I_ don't care how I get it. We can do this the civilised way, or I can beat it out of you--"

Elmyra gasps.

"But I'm not leaving here until I have a sample, and you're starting to piss me off."

"Sweetie..." says Elmyra.

"Get out!" sobs Aeris. "Get out get out get out get out get out!"

Tseng climbs onto the bed and yanks her arm toward him.

"Don't!" says Elmyra. "You'll hurt her!"

"It's her own fault," says Tseng. He tries to prep the syringe, but she's wriggling too much, biting, elbowing his ribs. "Aeris, stop it--"

"I'm not giving you anything! You kill _Zack_, and you think I'll just go along?"

"What?" says Tseng, loosening his grip in surprise. She whips her arm free and drags herself away from him. But she's forced to stop, panting, on the other side of the bed; he has her cornered. Tseng takes the opportunity to straighten his tie, which has somehow got thrown over his shoulder. "Zack? I haven't seen him in _years_. What are you on about?"

She sobs as he says that. "You-- Shinra-- all of them! You're Shinra! You're part of it!"

Tseng frowns. "What makes you think he's dead?" As Tseng remembers it, Zack went MIA 2 years ago in Nibelheim. At the time, Tseng had wondered if Aeris would have some hysterical fit over it; she was a teenage girl, after all, and while Zack didn't strike Tseng as interesting in any way, Tseng supposed Aeris was bound to romanticise the first person to whom she had presented her tits (romanticise out of a sense of propriety, if nothing else; one had to treat these things with due gravity or the whole institution of self-conscious teenage melodrama would collapse in on itself)-- but she'd seemed oddly calm.

_"I think he's just having a good sleep,"_ she'd said. Well, people had their coping mechanisms. He was glad; his job was simpler if she wasn't weeping and wailing. Back then, she'd carried on as normal.

Nothing like the creature shaking in front of him now. "Did someone say something to you?" he asks, trying to work out who would have more current information than _him_.

"I _felt _it!" she says. "They shot him, he died in agony and I had to feel it because I always have to feel it and none of you understand so just leave me alone!"

Tseng peers at her. "Felt, how?" He's never seen anything remotely supernatural from Aeris; he's always regarded these missions as straightforward, non-dangerous, and a complete waste of time (from the company's perspective, anyway). "You felt him return to the planet?" He can't believe the words are leaving his mouth with anything less than 100% sarcasm.

Aeris nods, sniffing.

"I see," says Tseng. He tries not to let his utter astonishment show on his face. In the distance, he hears the judder of the evening train, and realises it's already 4pm. Nearly the end of his working day. He decides to reserve judgement on whether to become a believer until he can check Zack's file, but he might as well play along for now. "Come on, Aeris," he tries, more gently. "I don't want to hurt you, but if you've seen what Shinra can do, then--"

"Don't you dare try to twist it to suit you!" She turns to Elmyra. "Mom, tell him to get out!"

"I really do think it would be best if you came back another time, Mr. Tseng," says Elmyra. Tseng almost laughs at the euphemism.

"I'm afraid Shinra doesn't much care what you think best." Tseng reaches for Aeris again. Aeris tries to kick him away, but he's ready this time; he grips the Manip materia in his pocket and gives a grunt of satisfaction as she freezes in place.

"Right, then." Tseng lifts her arm, as gently as he can. It's soft, heavy and limp under the effects of the Manip materia. Freckly. He notices she's not wearing her usual perfume. He gets his blood sample, avoiding her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Elmyra says to Aeris. Tseng still doesn't look Aeris in the face, but he's pretty sure her mother's words are no comfort.

"There we go, all done." He squirts the contents of the syringe into a vial, and slips the vial into a pocket. Once that's safely taken care of, he applies a gauze to Aeris' arm, a little sloppily; the strain of keeping the Manip materia working is starting to wear on him, but he wants the gauze finished before he frees her; he's fairly sure she won't care about bleeding out all over the bed if she can get the opportunity to bite him again. He moves a good distance away before he drops the spell.

"Darling, are you okay?" says Elmyra. She rushes over to Aeris, hugs her; Aeris lets her, staring stonily at Tseng over Elmyra's shoulder the whole time.

Tseng nods back. "You fought as well as you could, if it's any consolation."

"Zack was going to take me away from here," says Aeris, dully. "Now, I'm living in a nightmare. I just want to die."

"Shush!" Elmyra grips her.

"Should I take that seriously?" says Tseng, temper catching. She's never grateful. "Perhaps you still don't understand-- Shinra permits you to live here, off premises, in your own house with your precious mother and your _flowers_, because we have some confidence we can find you when we need to. You cooperate, and you have some measure of freedom." He brushes down his jacket, spotted with lint from the duvet and a couple of long, brown hairs. "But there are limits. If I deem you a suicide risk, in less than an hour, I can put you in the Shinra building. If I decide it's the best place for you, I can put you in the Shinra building. If I _have a bad day_, I can put you in the Shinra building. Do you understand?"

Aeris says nothing.

"I asked you a question, Aeris. Do you understand?"

Elmyra raises her head. "Is there a need for this? She's _grieving_."

"She's not a kid any more," says Tseng. He looks at the vase of flowers on the shelf, the bottle of perfume, the sunhat. "She needs to understand what she stands to lose, before she throws it away by accident, and she needs to understand that--" he falters; Aeris has started crying-- "-- that Shinra is composed of a lot of people, and we're not all the same--" she's crying harder; it's no good-- "-- and some of us are a lot more patient than others."

"Oh yes, I can see that," says Elmyra. She hugs Aeris tight.

Tseng's annoyed that he's flustered. He heads toward the door, giving them a quick nod. "Thank you for the blood sample. Next time, less fuss." He leaves. He can feel Aeris' eyes on his back.

But, later, when he's safe in the quiet of his apartment, blood sample sent wherever blood samples go, he reflects.

Even if she hates him (ha, 'if'-- as though she knows any alternative), she's still in the house, in sector 5, and not in a cell in Hojo's lab. Tseng needs a stiff drink-- but all in all, the day has gone well.

**Author's Note:**

> I play fast and loose with timelines. I find I get more interesting story possibilities/character dynamics if Zack spends more time dead and less in the lab, so while I think it should read 'Zack went MIA 4 years ago' above, canonically... meh.
> 
> One reason I don't believe in age-rating systems is that I think they'd be more sensible if they ran in reverse.


End file.
